Kristopher “Kip” Lynk of Dassel started his new role as Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City’s interim superintendent of schools July 1.
After growing up in the Twin Cities suburbs, Lynk earned a teaching degree at the University of Minnesota-Morris, where he also competed on the wrestling team. He began his career in education as an elementary and middle school teacher. He taught fifth grade at Dassel-Cokato Middle School until 2007. After obtaining K-12 principal certification at St. Mary’s University, he spent about a dozen years as an elementary school principal in the BOLD, Eden Prairie and Sartell school districts.
Lynk continued post-graduate studies at St. Cloud State University, obtaining his superintendent’s license. He spent his first several years in academic leadership working as a principal consultant for the Southwest/West Central Service Cooperative, meeting with school principals around southwestern Minnesota in curriculum development processes, leadership training and community relations. During the COVID restrictions, this involved a lot of Zoom meetings from a home-based office, he said. Although Lynk enjoyed the challenge of this work, it entailed a lot of travel and he missed being involved with the same group of people on a day-to-day basis, he said. So he applied for a couple of superintendent posts within commuting distance to his home in Dassel, where his wife Laura is employed as a fourth-grade teacher. He was pleased to accept the interim post at ACGC, where his new office in western Meeker County is a short commute from his home in eastern Meeker County.
The Lynks have four children, ages 19, 17, 9 and 8.
Lynk replaces Superintendent John Regan, who served as ACGC’s superintendent during the past year. Regan is relocating to the Rice/LeSueur county area south of Minneapolis, where he recently accepted a post as interim superintendent for the Waterville-Elysian-Morristown School District.
